I'm currently reading "A New Kind of Christian', which we are slowly going through with a friend on a week night. I'm not sure that we will actually finish this as the book does seem to require a sort of assumed knowledge. So I thought I'd just put down some brief thoughts, summaries on questions which McLaren proposed.
The first was the 'Narrative Question' Chapters 4-6.
The typical evangelical chronological understanding of the bible is something which I have jettisoned a while ago. After reading these chapters I'd discovered that I had done this without realising it! I've been much more inclined to read the stories for themselfs for a while.
I've been reading to Jemima 'The Jesus storybook bible
, which is very cute re-telling of the Bible. Yet is very frustrating because every story has this twist at the end promising a messianic figure. It is a classic example of what Mclaren is pointing out. We have put our own narrative and understanding into the story.I think a better place to start for a narrative is looking at who God is. Mine is a 'God of love'. When this infuses the story of the bible it makes things softer, more forgiving.